The cyclic polyphenols comprising a ring of monomer units having the structures depicted in the drawing, first reported by A. Zinke and E. Ziegler, Chem. Ber., 77, 264-272 (1944), are somewhat similar in structure to the cyclic polyethers and other macrocyclic ligands which are characterized by their size-related selectivity in binding cations noted in J. D. Lamb, R. M. Izatt, J. J. Christensen, D. J. Eatough, COORDINATION CHEMISTRY OF MACROCYCLIC COMPOUNDS, edited by G. A. Melson, Plenum, pages 145-217 (1979). The synthetic chemistry of compounds of this type has received careful study, expecially by Gutsche and his coworkers, who have designated these compounds calixarenes, C. D. Gutsche, R. Muthukrishnan, J. Org. Chem. 43, pages 4905-4906 (1978). Synthesis of cyclic heptamers of similar structure has been reported by H Kammerer and G. Happel, Makromol.Chem. 181, pages 2049-2062 (1980) and of cyclic pentamers by A. Ninagwa and H. Matsuda, Makromol.Chem.Rat.Comm.3, pages 65-67 (1982). The oligomeric hexameric and tetrameric compounds depicted in the drawing have been described by C. D. Gutsche, B. Dhawan, K. H. No and R. Muthukrishnan, J. Am. Chem.Soc.,103, pages 3782-3792 (1981). Such compounds are Bronsted-Lowry acids which E. M. Choy, D. F. Evans, E. L. Cussler, J. Am.Chem.Soc.,96, pages 7085-7090 (1974) used successfully to drive the flux of Na+ against the concentration gradient of monensen.